Iowa Summer Writing Festival

I spend time here each summer, and it's the best thing I've ever done for my writing career. We get distracted by the desire for an agent, knowledge of the market, trouble in the publishing world, etc., and forget that first and foremost, we must become incredible writers. When you send a really well-written submission out into the world, it WILL get someone's attention, eventually. If your work isn't quite there yet, it's gonna get rejected. I learned this lesson the hard way; I thought I was ready, thought my novel was great, and blew an opportunity with an agent whom I'd met at a conference. That was four years ago. I heard about the Iowa classes, took a week-long class, and was stunned to realize how much I didn't know about writing! My second summer in Iowa, I sat in a class next to the amazing Gennifer Choldenko, who had just won a Newbery Honor for "Al Capone Does My Shirts." When I asked her what she was doing in a writing class, her answer was simple, "I don't want to be one hit wonder; I want to keep getting better."

Check it out at www.uiowa.edu/~iswfest